European firms urged to assess IT vendor lock‑in and digital sovereignty

IT providers can signal vendor lock‑in through contract clauses that make switching costly or technically difficult. Key warning signs include long minimum terms, automatic renewals, missing data‑migration provisions, proprietary data formats, reliance on a single cloud hyperscaler, and exclusive certification requirements. Asking providers about data portability, open interfaces, contract termination rights and pricing models helps organisations evaluate these risks.

For European small and medium‑sized enterprises, digital sovereignty means retaining control over where and how data is processed, ensuring transparency about sub‑contractors, and maintaining the ability to exit a service without disproportionate effort. The Bitkom Cloud Report 2026 shows that 86 % of German companies use cloud services and 85 % view the country as overly dependent on US cloud providers, underscoring the strategic importance of assessing lock‑in risks as part of corporate risk management.